1 . A Florida man likes to shop at garage sales for old plaques(纪念匾)so he can reuse the wooden backs. Recently, he was looking through a___________he bought years ago when one _________a small ball caught his eye.

The man took a moment to___________what was written on the plaque and quickly realized there was a___________stone inside the ball-a piece of moon rock brought back on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The plaque and rock had been a___________to the state of Louisiana by then-President Richard Nixon but___________ended up in a garage sale for the man to find years later.

“I can’t even tell you how long I___________it for. I’m not even sure how much I___________for it. The wood in the plaques is such nice wood and that is what I___________them for," the man said. The man __________the Louisiana governor’s office, which____________him to the Louisiana State Museum. The man hand-delivered his____________to the Louisiana State Museum. He didn’t want to take a chance that something might happen to it during__________.The museum’s director is____________for his generosity and __________for reuniting the state with this priceless object. “It is an extraordinary piece of Louisiana history,” he said. “We’re____________to take possession of this piece and to share it with our audiences.”

After Apollo 17____________on Earth, Nixon____________379 pieces of the satellite stone to all the states as well as foreign nations. Over time, those gifts began to____________A 2002 search found that many were unaccounted for. To date, the fate(命运)of 171 rocks remains __________

4 . “If the self or person of today, and that of tomorrow, are not the same, but only like persons, the person of today is really no more interested in what will befall (降临到……头上) the person of tomorrow, than in what will befall any other person,“ Joseph Butler, a well-known philosopher wrote in 1736.

The theory caught the attention of a researcher called Hal Hershfield, who suspected that a disconnection from our future selves might explain many unreasonable elements of human behaviour including our unwillingness to exercise often.

To find out, Hershfield first had to find a way to measure someone’s ”future self-continuity”. He settled on a simple graphic that presented pairs of circles representing the current self, and a future self (see below).The circles overlapped (重叠) to varying degrees，and the participants had to identify which pair best described how similar and how connected they felt to a future self 10 years from now.

He then compared these responses to his participants’ real-life hehavior. Hershfield first looked at his participants’ real-life savings and he found that the more the participant felt connected to their future self, the more money they had already squirrelled away. What’s more, people who score highly on the future self-continuity measure have higher moral standards than the people who struggle to identify with their future selves.

Hershfield confirmed that someone’s (in) ability to identify with their future self can have long-term consequences for their overall wellbeing and that our sense of connection to our future selves can be strengthened. You might consider a simple imaginative exercise in which you write a letter to yourself 20 years from now, describing what is most important for you now and your plans for the coming decades.

It might seem strange to start a “conversation“ with an imagined person but once your future self becomes alive in your mind, you may find it much easier to make the small personal sacrifices (牺牲) that are essential to preserve your wellbeing.

5 . Imagine a team of humans and robots working together to process online orders. Real-life workers strategically positioned among their automated coworkers who are moving intelligently back and forth in a warehouse (仓库)space, picking items for shipping to the customer.

This could become a reality sooner or later thanks to researchers at the University of Missouri, who are working to speed up the online delivery process by developing a software model designed to make transport robots smarter.

“The robotic technology already exists,” said Sharan Srinivas, who specializes in data analytics and operations research. “Our goal is to best apply this technology through efficient planning. To do this, we’re asking questions like ‘given a list of items to pick, how do you optimize (优化)the route plan for the human pickers and robots?’ or ‘how many items should a robot pick in a given tour?’ Likewise, we have a similar set of questions for the human worker. The most challenging part is optimizing the collaboration plan between the human pickers and robots.”:

Currently, a lot of human effort and labor costs are involved with fulfilling online orders. To help optimize this process, robotic companies have already developed cooperative robots, also known as cobots or autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), to work in a warehouse or distribution center. AMRs are equipped with sensors and cameras to help them navigate(确定方向)around a controlled space like a warehouse.

Srinivas said, “The robot is intelligent, so if it’s instructed to go to a particular location, it can navigate the warehouse and not hit any workers or other obstacles along the way. AMRs are not designed to replace human workers, but instead can work cooperatively alongside them to help increase the efficiency of the order fulfillment process.”

“The one drawback is that these robots do not have good grasping abilities,” said Srinivas. “But humans are good at grasping items, so we are trying to balance the strength of both resources.”

6 . “All of our senses convert (转换) physical energy in the surrounding world into electrical responses. which are the common currency that the nervous system uses, “ said James Hudspeth from Rockefeller University.

Hudspeth said, “Our ears have to convert mechanical vibrations(震动)in the air into electrical responses. And the way this is done is that there are so-called hair cells. These cells have little microscopic bristles(刚毛), about a hundred of them, and on the top of each cell, these bristles vibrate back and forth in response to sound. That sets up an electrical signal that goes down a nerve fiber and into the brain. ”

Hudspeth continued, “The real question is what happens with these hair cells as they degenerate. We lose them owing to loud sounds and certain drugs, and we lose them with ag- ing. What can be done to repair them so that we can restore hearing?”

Another expert, Robert Fettiplace said, “Well, I mean there are two aspects to this, one of which is that you could try and regrow them. Almost all hearing loss is due to death of the hair cells or lack of formation of them in the first place. The cells are all different. ”

Hudspeth said, “The problems that Robert has mentioned go for mammals, including ourselves. The situation is different with other four-legged animals. But, in reptiles, including birds, this regeneration is going on all the time, like in fish. In fact, you can take a chicken to a concert, blasting its ears. They will nicely regenerate, and even with frequency- specific hair cells, they will reconnect, and the animal will be able to hear normally again. ”

Hudspeth added, “I agree that there is an enormous challenge, and this is certainly some- thing that won’t happen overnight in ourselves. But I don’t think it’s a hopeless task and I think basically what many people are trying to do is decode (解码) the signals sent as these hair cells develop, and by doing so to recognize the signaling pathways that might be reactivated the original development and restore hair cells by that means. ”

9 . People always underestimate (低估) others’ desire for constructive feedback (反馈) and therefore don’t provide it, even when it can improve another person’s performance. according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Previous research suggests people avoid giving feedback because they’re afraid that it will embarrass or upset the other person, or that doing so may harm their relationships. Nicole Abi-Esber of Harvard Business School and her colleagues theorized there might be another reason why people refuse to give feedback: They simply don’t fully recognize the potential of their input to improve others’ outcomes, leading them to underestimate others’ desire for such feedback.

To test their theory, the researchers conducted a series of experiments involving 1,984 participants. In one experiment. participants were presented with 10 imaginary awkward social situations at work, where they could either give or receive constructive feedback, In another experiment, participants were asked to recall a situation where they could either have given or received constructive feedback. In the final experiment, participants were paired, with one practising a speech for a competition and the other assigned to listen and provide feedback.

Across all the experiments, people in a position to give feedback consistently underestimated potential receivers’ desire for it. The more consequential the feedback was, the more likely participants were to underestimate the other’s need for feedback and the less likely they were to offer it. The gap was smaller in more everyday, less important situations, such as when the other person had food on their face.

The researchers were surprised to find that simply asking people to quickly reflect “If you were this person, would you want feedback?” helped participants recognize the value of feedback to the other person and helped close the giver-receiver gap. “Take a second and ask yourself if you would want feedback if you were them. Most likely you would, and this realization can help empower you to give them feedback,” said Abi-Esber.

“Feedback is key to personal growth and improvement.” said coauthor Francesca Gino, also of Harvard Business School. “The next time you hear someone mispronounce a word, or see a dirty mark on their shirt, point it out to them — they probably want feedback more than you think.”

10 . If you’re in the market for a new food or water dish for your cat, you might want to check out Free the Ocean’s Bamboo Cat Bowls. These are made of bamboo fibers and rice husks (稻壳) and are more eco-friendly than traditional plastic.

The presence of bamboo-used as a renewable filler—is part of what makes the bowl greener. Bamboo, which is technically a grass, grows 30% faster than trees and as much as 1.5 inches per hour! Not surprisingly, it produces 30% more oxygen and absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than trees, according to Mimi Ausland, founder of Free the Ocean. “It’s a cut-and-come-again plant, which means it can be cropped without disrupting the root ball, reducing carbon giving off when it’s harvested.”

Rice husk is a byproduct of rice production that is a challenge to farmers because it is hard to break down and of no great value. Its use as a filler provides a purpose for an otherwise useless material and, along with the bamboo.

Ausland said, “Plastic cat dishes harbor bacteria (细菌), which can put your cat’s health at risk. Even if pet owners clean them regularly, they cannot be fully sanitized. Plastic bowls are the main cause of cat diseases.”

However, the bamboo cat bowl will not leach (渗入) harmful chemicals into your pet’s water the way that traditional plastic can and it is naturally free of bacteria.

Cats will like the bowls, as they have low edges. With an easy-to-pick-up handle, they come in four colors.

One customer commented, “My cats prefer these cat food bowls just like me. The cats like the low lip that makes it easy to eat out of. And the fact that they’re made of bamboo and that buying them makes a difference to the environment is amazing! And it is easy to wash in the dishwasher.”